How to Write a Good Management Consulting Resume?

Question:

Dear,

I want to apply to McKinsey, Bain, BCG, AT Kearney and Roland Berger. I guess you could say that I have been an outstanding student, with a good set of extra-curricular activities as well. On the other hand, I do not find that much good information on how to write a compelling management consulting resume. Could you explain me what an excellent management consulting resume should look like?

My reply:

I personally spend a good amount of time optimizing my resume (and cover letter) back in the days when I applied for Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, BCG, Roland Berger, AT Kearney and AD Little. I eventually got a first round case interview invitation at each firm (and got an offer at all but one).

By now, I have screened quite a good amount of resumes at Bain & Company, so I will share my ideas on how to write a compelling management consulting curriculum vitae. Needless to say that these ideas do not only apply for Bain, but also apply for McKinsey, BCG and the like. Furthermore, keep in mind that regardless of whether you are an undergraduate applying for a business analyst position, or an MBA applying for an associate position; in the end the below tips and tricks are largely true (thus regardless on which entry level you are applying to).

The most important thing you have to keep in mind when you make your management consulting resume is to always keep in mind what the consulting firm is looking for (and include this on your resume). In the end, each consulting firm is more or less looking for the same elements on your resume. When I receive a resume, the first thing I always do, is simply check whether all key elements are demonstrated (preferably backed with numbers).

The next question is then: "What are these 'elements' that management consulting firms are looking for?" In the following I will give you an overview of each of these elements, and afterwards discuss why each one is important to a management consulting firm, and how you can best demonstrate your strong capability for each aspect.

The leading management consulting firms are looking for five key elements in resumes:

Top employers and/or renowned universities
Excellent academic performance
Strong analytical skills
Evidence of leadership and strong social skills
Extra-curricular activities

1. Top employers or renowned universities

When you receive a resume that says Harvard, Princeton, INSEAD, Cambridge or the like; it will immediately stand out. In the end, a management consulting firm will be billing you out to its clients for several ten-thousands of dollars month, and for this reason the client will want to know about your background. If the firm then can say you have a BA from Yale and an MA from Harvard, 'your' price tag will of course be easier to justify. Furthermore, being able to say you studied at one of these top-universities, also shows that you have already passed a difficult selection process to get in the specific school, which of course already well demonstrates your competencies. Regardless of this, you do not need to have studied at an Ivy League university to get a job in management consulting. In case you come from one of the many good universities of your country, you will definitely also make a shot at MBB. It will however then be even more important to be really convincing, and to clearly show your determination to work in management consulting.

Next to renowned universities, the management consulting firm will also be looking for top employers on your CV. In case you are a young graduate, this will moreover be an internship at a top-employer, and in case you would be an experienced hire, they will definitely be looking for previous (preferably high-profile) work experiences at some of the world's top employers. Examples of such top-employers would include Google, Microsoft, Apple, P&G, Exxon Mobil, Merrill Lynch, etc. Again, you do not necessarily need to have worked at one of these companies to land an interview at MBB, but it would definitely give you an advantage in getting that important first interview. For this reason, if you are thinking to work in management consulting, try to do at least one internship in a leading corporations, as it will be a great experience, but also look very good on your resume.

2. Excellent academic performance

It is great of course if you have studied at Harvard or Yale, but if you there where one of the weakest performing student of your year, then this has far less meaning. A management consulting firm will be looking for the strongest students of the year to focus their recruiting efforts on. In the end, recruiting does cost quite a lot of money, and the firm knows that they will have a better chance of finding good potential hires if they focus on students with an excellent academic track. The management consulting firm will definitely look at your result for each year, but the weight (of importance) is definitely higher for your last years at university. Keep in mind that even if you apply for MBB to get a position as an industry hire, your university results will matter. Clearly you should never lie about your marks, but in case you had one 'bad' year, you could hide your result by replacing it by an aggregate score for multiple years together (in case this would be better).

3. Strong analytical skills

As a consultant you will always need to very analytical (and structured) on the job. For this reason, a management consulting firm will be on the lookout for people that have demonstrated strong analytical skills, for instance through excellent grades for math/science courses, or even better through a high score for (one of the standardized) tests such as SAT, GRE or GMAT. These tests make it easy for the firm to compare your score with other applicants, and obviously they will be looking for those with scores that are well-above average (though there is no specific cut-off). For this reason, it is important to on your resume include these scores, and demonstrate your strong analytical skills.

4. Evidence of leadership and strong social skills

Graduating from a top university, or having had a top position at one of the world's leading corporations, together with continuous strong performance and excellent analytical skills will make you an interesting candidate for a management consulting firm. However, you will also need to demonstrate strong social and leadership skills on your resume to make you an excellent candidate. In the end, a consultant needs to work often aside with the client to create results, and good social skill will be key here. Furthermore, you will need to demonstrate your leadership skills, as the firm also wants to know whether you can manage and steer a client team or (potentially at a later stage) your colleagues. For this reason, you should definitely include projects/events where you demonstrated strong leadership and social skills. This could be an (important) event that you have organized, a (small) business you had set up with your friends while you were a student, etc. Keep in mind that if you have a very technical background (example Math major at MIT), you should even more proof your social and leadership skills on your resume.

5. Extra-curricular activities

It is definitely possible that you already included some extra-curricular activities on your resume to demonstrate your social and/or leadership skills, as discussed above. Regardless of this, try to think (further) about the ten most important/impressive achievements/projects in your life (it can take a fair amount of time to make a good top ten), and think about which ones you would include on your resume. The rule on what to include is simple; if you feel it would be valuable to discuss during a case interview (or have your interviewer be aware of it) than you should include it; otherwise not. Examples could for instance be an award-winning paper you wrote, your selection for the (Under 21) Olympics ice skating team, a (prominent) summer course you participated in, etc. These do not really fall under the four categories above, but would nonetheless be good additions to your resume.

Other things to keep in mind when developing your resume:

1) Keep in mind that your resume should show excellent performance in each single year. You do not want the CV to be thinking that you had a weak performance during one or two particular years. Ensure each year looks impressive; if you had one weaker year at university, think about specific things you realized that year to compensate for the weaker marks.

2) Also keep in mind the formatting (or design) of your resume. It definitely does matter, and the reason for this is simple. To make a simple analogy; Imagine buying a beautiful diamond ring for your fiancé, and putting it in a carton box. This would kill the entire experience, and the reason is simply because the package does matter. In the end, the design of your resume does to extent say something about you. A management consulting firm is looking for a well-structured and 'clean' person. Therefore ensure your resume is well-formatted to demonstrate these values. It should be easy-to-read (or skim-through) and appealing to the eye. Keep in mind however that an enormous amount of different formats could definitely work. The most important thing however is that your major accomplishments are easy to read.

3) Lastly, definitely keep in mind to include your language proficiency. Where in the US it is often good enough to master English, it is always great to be able to show you also speak Spanish or even Chinese. In European countries it is generally required in management consulting to at least speak two languages (native language & English), and more languages are even more a bonus in Europe.

Hi, my name is Tom Rochtus. Almost two years ago, I was interviewing with all major management consulting firms. I eventually landed job offers from six out of seven firms I had applied for; including McKinsey and Bain. I signed with Bain & Company, and can tell you I have so far had an amazing time since. I afterwards decided to aggregate all my ideas on cracking case interviews, which eventually became "Case Interview Success". This book bundles all concepts and frameworks that will provide you with the necessary skills to succeed case interviews.

Top Management Consulting Firm 

Management Consulting Firm

Management consulting firmsare third-party organizations or individuals that offer information on how to improve business operations. These services can range from accounting, information technology management, strategic leadership or any other business services. Management consultants usually have professional background in a particular industry and they have the potential to assess problems along with solutions to progress the process. Highly planned methods and tools are used for bringing about organizational changes in the company.Change the management is a common and important use for management consulting firms. Change management is where an organization makes significant moves or modifications in its functions.

The main objective of a management consulting firm is to provide the necessary arrangements for the clients to meet their goals. Normally management consulting firms can focus on any issues in a business or they are specialized in one or two areas. For example, employee training education and making business relationships, negotiating with retailers and the proper implementation of production methods are general in these firms.In addition to providing proficiency or guidance, many firms also offer companies the ability to educate and train their management employees.These firms normally do a variety of activities such as strategic and organizational development, financial planning and budgeting, marketing objectives, information systems scheduling, evaluation and selection.

Any organization looking for a temporary assistance with their business challenges, business direction or development usually looks to a management consulting firm for help. It is very significant for an organization to have a clear picture of the project scope in their mind before meeting with the consulting firm such as the the services required, the desired outcome and the level of expertise necessary for them.A Organizational development Consulting generally function in project teams. Depending upon the company and task,usually management consultants on the project team often spend their time at the client's company than afterwards they do additional work at their own office. These consultants gather required information, interact with the organization, and more often work on getting solutions for them.

A Management Consulting Firm ranges in size from individual consultants to large businesses.Some firms concentrate only on specific services while other offer varieties of services that promotes and maintains healthy organizational culture, while focusing on the improvement of the end results of all the small businesses through better performance by the organization.

In today's business world, the only thing that matters is a result. With effective management planning, companies can achieve high goals, perform better, make more profits and enjoy life to the fullest. A Management Consulting Firm can help managing job time, setting goals and financial plans, developing relationships in workplace, communicating, appraising, efficiently and listening, influencing colleagues optimistically working through changes and variety in workforce, disciplining, delegating, guiding, coaching and identifying problems and solving them, making decisions and thinking significantly.

Therefore, Organizational development Consulting helps to examine the company's process and find methods to improve business processes as many companies may not have personnel to find and review options for business changes.

Leading Management Consulting Firm

Signs You Might Need a CFO

Many business owners struggle with the question of when to bring in professional financial management resources. Certain events obviously require the assistance of a CFO, such as an acquisition, business sale or the requirement of audited or reviewed financial statements. However, most businesses would benefit from CFO services in advance of these situations or even if no such transaction is planned.

Many CEO's grow into the role of Chief Financial Officer by virtue of the fact that they run the business, often times, however, they find a majority of their time being consumed by these finance related tasks. This is not the best use of their time and often not their strength to begin with.

A few situations that may indicate that it is time to bring in some executive level financial assistance on either full time or part time basis are:

1. People ask you financial questions to which you don't know the answer
2. You have investors or financial covenants
3. Judge business success by change in bank balance from month to month
4. Have difficulty making business decision due to lack of information
5. Short term spending decisions are based on funds in bank account
6. Financial Reports are printed directly form QuickBooks
7. Lacking a finance person with whom to discuss business strategy
8. Don't understand why and where profits are being made, or lost

An experienced CFO can make the CEO better able to focus on managing the overall direction of the business. A CFO is trained in dealing with finance related issues and is better able to efficiently assess the importance of a particular matter and resolve it more easily than could someone skilled in operations or marketing.

If you find that any of the above situations apply to you it may or may not be time to hire CFO or engage a CFO Services firm, but it is definitely worth your while to talk with someone that provides these services.

Most CFO Services firms are willing to provide a free consultation to prospective clients that can range anywhere from one to four hours. This often times will come with an assessment (from their perspective) of the business and a recommended course of action.

While the purpose of this recommendation is clearly to win you over as a client it may still contain useful information that may have been previously overlooked and highlight potential weaknesses that can be addressed either by ongoing engagement or on a project basis.

Part time CFO services UAE 

How An International Management Consulting Firm Can Be An Indispensable Business Partner

Entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses typically rely on their own knowledge and resources in managing their businesses. Generally, their major concerns evolve around how they can get a return on their investments in the quickest and most efficient means possible. Yet, no matter how competent they are as business managers - they are able to meet deadlines, complete projects on time, and handle their staff well - they may still not be successful in realizing the highest potentials of their businesses. Usually, small business owners and entrepreneurs do not see the value of an intervention from a global business strategy consulting firm. Most of these businesses do not invest in these international management consulting companies because they simply do not realize the need and the value of such an intervention.

Actually, intervention from global business strategy consulting firms can result in greater opportunities for their businesses. These firms are generally more knowledgeable and familiar with the various aspects of running different kinds of businesses. Thus, they are able to see the bigger picture, allowing them to give business owners sound advice and lucrative options. When you invest in international management consulting, you will be provided with the basics on improving your company. Furthermore, they will be able to pinpoint the weaknesses or loopholes of your company. This will allow them to consult with you about the different areas that you should focus on to improve your business.

An investment with a global business strategy consulting firm will open up your business to strategy consulting, investment advisory, venture promotion, and customized investing platforms, among others. These types of support provided by international management consulting will better equip you and your business in keeping at par with your competitors. More importantly, these may help your business thrive and prosper in markets which may be extremely competitive and demanding at times. Investing in international management consulting will gain you a competent and reliable business partner, who can work with you towards a common goal for the improvement and success of your business.

Investment advisory, in particular, has been proven to significantly helpful in aiding small companies through business development and expansion. Global business strategy consulting firms offer such assistance to allow small businesses that have a niche to thrive and prosper against bigger companies. With investment advisory, international management consulting will provide you with options for market entry strategies and business development and negotiation options. They will advise you on how to formulate tactics that meet your company's short-term and long-term objectives. Furthermore, they also provide risk analysis and crisis management - two very helpful platforms which can, in the critical situations, actually save your business.

Indeed, an investment in a global business strategy consulting firm can do wonders for the improvement of your small business. Not only will you be able to keep breast with the latest trends, strategies, and tactics in marketing, sales, and the other vital aspects of business, but you will also gain a partner who can give you sound advice and feed back whenever necessary. International management consulting could be your business' ticket to success and longevity.

Management Consulting Firm 

Small Business Management Consulting - A Wise Investment in Any Company

Small Business Management Consulting Can Solve Problems

What is small business management consulting? Technically, there is more than one answer to this question. There are many things that a company can achieve by using a small business management consultant. If a company has numerous issues that need to be addressed, a consultant may be needed long-term. If there are minor problems that need to be focused on, the consultant may only be needed for a short time.

It may be a wise choice for a new business owner to have help by having a consultant help with small business management consulting. There are many behind the scene actions that take place before a company opens up. There needs to be proper accounting, inventory, and merchandising, to name a few. There are a lot of things that need to be covered and a consultant can ensure everything is in place prior to the business opening.

Small business management consulting could also consist of leadership assistance. It is very important that a company has employees who are reliable and trustworthy. In order for a company to be productive, the employees have to perform their duties correctly and efficiently. A consultant can help by providing leadership training. This will ensure that each employee know what their job is and how to do it correctly. They can also help the employees with time management. This will keep production running smoothly, with few complications.

Problems that arise in a company that are left unattended can get worse, practically overnight. When an issue occurs, it should be handled as quickly as possible. It is easier to fix a problem when it first occurs rather than waiting until it gets out of control. One area of the company may be affected at first, but if the problems are ignored, they can begin to have a negative impact on different areas. This only creates more issues for the business owner to handle. Small business management consulting can address current problems and try to prevent future problems.

Oftentimes problems are ignored or put on the back burner simply because the person in command doesn't have enough time to handle everything. When a person is responsible for many aspects of a business, it is hard to be in numerous places at once. A small business management consulting firm can send a consultant to come aboard and help get things under control. The consultant can work side by side with the owner or management, or they can work alone in fixing the problems.

If the consultant works on the problems at hand alone, this gives the owner the time to focus their attention on other areas of the company. Consultants are problem solvers, it is what they do best. They can look at an issue from all sides, come up with a plan on how to fix the issue and then put that plan into action. For example, if one of the company's issues is with loss of revenue, the consultant will look at all areas where money is coming in and going out. If a vendor is charging too much for supplying the company with its product, the consultant can look for another vendor. They will look for one that can provide top quality products for a reasonable price. Another thing the consultant may look at is the time it takes the vendor to get the item to the company. If a customer is wanting a specific item that the company doesn't currently have, and the company tells them they can order it, it doesn't need to take weeks for that to happen.

It is a known fact that problems can occur at anytime and sometimes the problem is too big for one person to take care of. With small business management consulting, the owner of the business doesn't have to be alone. They can get the help they need in a timely manner so the business is affected as little as possible. Sometimes with a problem, there is an easy fix and some problems take a little longer to find a solution. A consultant can work with the owner or management until the problem is resolved and come up with a plan of action to prevent that same problem from occurring again in the future. Sometimes the best method of problem solving is as simple as prevention.

If you are looking forward to starting your own business, you may want to consider contacting a small business management consulting firm. They can partner you up with a consultant that can help you from the very beginning. If your business is already open, but you are having some issues, a consultant can help you come in, locate the problem and come up with a proper course of action and implement it. If you think that the use of a small business management consultant could benefit your company, feel free to click the link below to find out more.

Management Consulting Company

5 Best Tips on Skipping the Stress of Starting a Business in UAE

There's nothing like being an entrepreneur and having your own wonderful business set up in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Nevertheless, the thought of going through long approval processes and documentation makes many budding entrepreneurs skip the idea and look for a better alternative. In contrast to the limited few, there are others who stay adamant throughout the game and make all possible efforts to achieve the goal. And they walk with the crown!

If you wish to be like the chiefs who never lost hope, stayed calm and emerged victorious, then you can't afford to skip without reading the tips below:

Research & Target

Research and analyze the business or market you are going to establish. Depending upon the trends and business profitability, without forgetting your interest, put your best foot forward. However, the story doesn't end here. There's a long way to go.

Ownership

In UAE, the ownership requirements are more detailed and complex, so you should be knowledgeable about this before starting the business. According to UAE law, 51% involvement by UAE nationals is required for any established companies except in certain circumstances like in some Free Zones such as Jebel Ali and Airport Free Zones. If you are considering general partnerships, know that this is limited to UAE nationals only.

Business License

A business license is a main requirement for any business. In Dubai, there are three kinds of licenses: Trading, Commercial & Professional. The commercial licenses cover all kinds of activities involving trading. On the other hand, professional licenses include professions, services, craftsmen, and artisans. No matter what you choose, you must remember that there are licenses for certain categories that require the approval of certain authorities.

Hire an Arabic speaker

It's always a good idea to hire someone who can negotiate for you in Arabic. The thing about Dubai or most of the emirates in UAE is that most transactions especially government institutions are done in Arabic. It would help you a lot to hire someone who can speak Arabic who can negotiate on your behalf.

Professional Consultancy Company

If your budget allows, hire a professional consulting company. Most foreign businessmen hire a professional consulting company who knows can help you get things sorted. They can work on all the documents preparation that may take a while, especially for the expatriates thinking of setting up a company in UAE. It's always good to be knowledgeable about what's happening with your competitors; that's where the importance of consultants come from.

Management Consulting Company UAE